With the situation changing so frequently, please be sure you are reviewing the most updated version of this document and, as always, check with your national organization before taking any of these recommendations.

Whether or not to quarantine sick members at the chapter house is up to each individual chapter and house corporation to decide based on their organization’s guidance, their campus and local health department guidance, and the structure and layout of their individual facilities.

We have created some questions to consider in making the decision whether or not to quarantine sick individuals at the chapter house:

Legal liability exists when:

What actions during the COVID-19 crisis could possibly lead to the insured (chapter and/or house corporation) being found legally liable for an injury from the virus? Before we lay out some examples it is always important to remember that society and the courts generally only require that a person or entity act “as a reasonable and prudent person” and using their best, and most informed, judgement act accordingly. 

Examples might be:

There are numerous other scenarios; however, the major point is that there will be advice from experts like the CDC on how to follow health and prevention guidelines to keep your chapter house safe from spreading COVID-19. The key is to follow the health and prevention guidelines, educate your employees and members on these guidelines, and put measures in place to ensure their compliance of these guidelines.  Should someone get injured or ill and allege they did so on your property, you will be able to confidently defend your position by having followed these best practices.

At MJ Sorority, we created this resource packet to help our clients plan safer events during the COVID-19 pandemic.

With the situation changing so frequently, please be sure you are reviewing the most updated version of this document and, as always, check with your national organization before taking any of these recommendations.

As we navigate these crazy times dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, we are trying to address as many possible scenarios that need to be addressed for chapter facilities to safely open and stay open. We are relying on the experts and doing our best to collect the experts’ advice and information that impacts our clients. It is important that our clients are staying as up-to-date as possible on the current recommendations by their respective national organization, by their state and local governments, and by the campus (including campus health and residential life departments) in which they are affiliated.

We have been researching various scenarios and questions that face sororities specifically.  Because each chapter facility faces unique challenges depending on their specific facility, their campus, state, etc., we cannot offer clear guidance that applies to every chapter house. For that reason, we are offering the advice on the following situations with the stipulation that each location will need to do what is best for their individual situations, ensuring that they are following their own organization’s policies and the guidance from local and campus public health departments.

The risks associated with the communal sleeping arrangements that do exist in some sorority chapter houses will need to be closely reviewed. At face value, these congested/densely populated and poorly ventilated rooms will be a breeding ground for the virus and the eventual spread to others in the same room. If it is possible to utilize the personal rooms for the temporary sleeping arrangements, this would be the best recommendation; however, we recognize that this may not be possible from a business perspective. This is another example of where you must chose your risks, so to speak, and the business risk to your operation with significantly less members paying room and board may outweigh the risks of members being exposed to the virus.

Some best practices to consider should you have no choice but to maintain the usual group sleeping arrangements are as follows:

Communication during a crisis is crucial, and it is possibly even more important during a global pandemic, in which conditions are changing sometimes multiple times during the same day. It has become abundantly clear that the success of a university and a sorority chapter house to be able to maintain operations will be closely tied to the students’ and members’ commitment to follow the best practices established. It is of utmost importance that communication lines are open between the chapter and House Corporation leadership and the following entities:

Whether or not to quarantine sick members at the chapter house is up to each individual chapter and house corporation to decide based on their organization’s guidance, their campus and local health department guidance, and the structure and layout of their individual facilities.

We have created some questions to consider in making the decision whether or not to quarantine sick members at the chapter house.

If a location does choose to quarantine ill members, this is the CDC guidance for quarantining sick members. Kappa Alpha Theta created this housing and safety plan that they graciously agreed to share, which includes a simple approach and expectations should a member be symptomatic or test positive. Each sorority is using a slightly different philosophy, but many general principles are mutual. 

Quarantining a House Director

Generally, a house director has a private living arrangement that would lend itself to a quarantine. However, this does not align well with the house director being able to continue to perform their job responsibilities. A possible alternative may be to secure a temporary employee to temporarily takeover the house director’s responsibilities for oversight of the property.

See our resource on additional things to consider if your House Director tests positive for COVID-19.

The CDC guidance on social distancing is particularly difficult in communal living spaces. We recommend the following measures be put in place should you chose to re-open the chapter house:

Additionally, the CDC recommends the following considerations for common spaces in your facility.

We recommend that our clients offer tremendous flexibility to employees and members at higher risk of infection. Based on what we currently know, the CDC defines those individuals at higher risk of severe illness from COVID-19 as follows:

It is important that employers are following the CDC guidance for businesses and employers. We recommend that all chapter house employees be provided with cloth face coverings and disposable gloves. When cleaning and disinfecting, employees should always wear gloves and gowns appropriate for the chemicals being used. Additional personal protective equipment (PPE) may be needed based on setting and product.

Here are some additional resources for review:

Testing availability and requirements are so widely disparate based on various areas around the country that we cannot make any recommendations on testing at this time. We recommend that you contact your state and local health departments for additional information and clarification.

In order to re-open, it may be recommended to take temperatures of residents, employees, and guests. The federal government has waived certain HIPAA privacy rules during this emergency situation, but, again, it is important that you abide by the recommendations set forth by your national organization, your campus health department, and your state and local health departments for clarification.

It is important that you encourage member residents to monitor themselves for symptoms daily.

The most important and relevant resource for decontamination is the CDC’s Guidance on Cleaning and Disinfection for Community Facilities. Stay tuned to the CDC guidance for the most updated information based on our evolving knowledge of the novel coronavirus. Review our recorded webinar on cleaning and decontamination recommendations.

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has recommended increased ventilation for COVID-19 prevention.

The CDC has stated that COVID-19 is spread mainly from person-to-person, through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes. The droplets can possibly be inhaled by people nearby. Because of this, the CDC recommends increasing building ventilation to cut down on recycled contaminated air. 

Now, more than ever, it is imperative that HVAC system filters are inspected, exhaust systems are operational, and outside air sources are maximized. Many older buildings do not meet current codes, often lacking outside air intakes and exhaust. Even newer buildings, which may be equipped with intakes and exhaust, can be out of service or improperly balanced. 

We urge you to consider this inspection as a part of your enhanced cleaning/decontamination work in your chapter house. 

People living and working in sorority chapter houses will have challenges with social distancing to prevent the spread of COVID-19. In this type of shared housing, residents often gather together closely for social, leisure, and recreational activities, shared dining, and/or use of shared equipment, such as kitchen appliances, laundry facilities, stairwells, and elevators.

It is imperative that local house corporation and chapter volunteers are working together, communicating openly and often, and touching base with their state, local, and campus health departments, which can help you decide when and if you need to scale up or loosen prevention measures.

Note: Surgical masks and N-95 respirators are critical supplies that must continue to be reserved for healthcare workers and other medical first responders, as recommended by current CDC guidance. All staff and residents should wear a cloth face covering when in shared areas of the facility and maintain social distancing to slow the spread of the virus.

Identify platforms such as email, websites, hotlines, automated text messaging, newsletters, and flyers to help communicate information on:

Accepting guests at facilities

First, review and follow the guidance and directives from your state and local officials. It is our recommendation that chapter houses do not allow guests during the pandemic.

If you decide to allow guests, we recommend that you put in place check-in requirements and provide any guests with a clean cloth face covering.

With the situation changing so frequently, please be sure you are reviewing the most updated version of this document and, as always, check with your national organization before taking action.

The CDC has issued the following guidelines to properly disinfect your facilities before welcoming members, employees, and guests back in to the chapter facility.

OSHA COVID-19 Website

CDC Home Care Guidance

CDC COVID-19 Environmental Cleaning and Disinfection Guidance for Households

CDC Home Care Guidance for People with Pets

Risk control doesn’t start when an employee begins work – it starts with the job itself. View Travelers’, the insurance company for MJ Sorority clients, collection of resources to help you attract and hire employees in your organization.

A checklist developed by the American Red Cross.

The South Carolina hurricane guide contains helpful and practical tips for all chapters in the path of a hurricane. Check their website for the most updated version.

A hurricane is a storm with rotary circulation that originates in a tropical depression over the sea with winds in excess of 74 miles per hour. Hurricanes are usually accompanied by torrential rains and flooding along coastal areas. Hurricane season typically runs from June 1 to December 1.

The National Weather Service tracks tropical storms as they intensify into hurricanes. They issue advisories every six hours while a storm is more than 24 hours away from land and more frequently as it approaches landfall. The advisories state the storm’s location, wind velocity, speed and direction. The National Weather Service issues warnings when they determine that a coastal area will be affected by the storm’s high winds or a combination of high water and rough seas.

Every facility located in a coastal area should develop a hurricane emergency plan. The plan should include a detailed procedure and checklist for shutting down processes and protecting buildings, contents, equipment and yard storage. In addition, the procedures should include guidelines to follow to mitigate losses during the hurricane and salvage procedures to follow after the hurricane has subsided.

The plan should include the amount of time required (in hours or days) to complete each major task to ensure preparations are initiated at the appropriate time. Hurricane preparedness also should include the appointment of a qualified group of individuals to form a salvage squad. The objective of the salvage squad is to restore operations to normal as quickly as possible.

Preparation for a hurricane should include both long-term and short-term plans.

Long-term plans should be established, completed and reviewed periodically. These plans will mainly encompass improvements to construction features and site preparation to minimize hurricane damage. Long-term preparations could require several weeks or months to complete.

Long-term planning should concentrate on installing and maintaining construction features to increase the “hurricane resistance” of the property. Any hurricane resistance feature that cannot be permanently installed should be arranged so that the specialized protection can be quickly and easily installed. Protection features will need to be inspected and tested at least annually (prior to hurricane season) to keep them in good repair. The following items should be included on the pre-hurricane checklist:

Any new construction or building remodeling should comply with the hurricane preparedness plan. Short-term plans should be developed well in advance of a hurricane, but need only be implemented when the projected path of a hurricane puts your facility in imminent danger of receiving damage. To prepare for an oncoming hurricane, detailed procedures and a checklist should be developed to ensure an orderly shut down of all production processes and all property is properly protected. The amount of time required (in hours or days) to complete each major task should be determined in advance to ensure preparations are initiated at the appropriate time..

As the hurricane approaches, quick action will need to be taken to install temporary protection features. The following actions should be completed:

Arrangements should be made to evacuate the emergency response team before the hurricane strikes. If the emergency response team is able to stay on site, a safe area of substantial construction should be available for the team members to occupy. The emergency response team plans should be communicated in advance to local law enforcement officials. The emergency response team should continually patrol the facility as long as it is safe to do so and complete the following:

Once the storm has subsided, the salvage squad should be assembled and the squad leader should assign job priorities to safely repair and restore production processes and buildings.

A properly staffed salvage squad generally consists of personnel who are qualified to repair electrical, mechanical, plumbing and fire protection systems. In addition, an adequate complement of personnel for general cleanup may be required. If outside contractors are used, they must be supervised to ensure safe operating conditions are maintained.

The squad leader should verify the salvage squad is properly staffed and equipped to complete their objectives. Typical supplies will include construction tools, mops, buckets, rust inhibitors, fans, water vacuums, brooms, dehumidifiers, squeegees, and wiping rags. Other non-typical items may include the need to order replacement motors, mechanical equipment, etc.

The salvage squad leader should verify the following items are completed

Immediate damage assessment should be completed and action plans developed to address priorities:

Familiarize personnel with any unsafe or hazardous conditions and update them with the progress of salvage operations.

The information provided in this document is intended for use as a guideline and is not intended as, nor does it constitute, legal or professional advice. Travelers does not warrant that adherence to, or compliance with, any recommendations, best practices, checklists, or guidelines will result in a particular outcome. In no event will Travelers, or any of its subsidiaries or affiliates, be liable in tort or in contract to anyone who has access to or uses this information for any purpose. Travelers does not warrant that the information in this document constitutes a complete and finite list of each and every item or procedure related to the topics or issues referenced herein. Furthermore, federal, state, provincial, municipal or local laws, regulations, standards or codes, as is applicable, may change from time to time and the user should always refer to the most current requirements. This material does not amend, or otherwise affect, the provisions or coverages of any insurance policy or bond issued by Travelers, nor is it a representation that coverage does or does not exist for any particular claim or loss under any such policy or bond. Coverage depends on the facts and circumstances involved in the claim or loss, all applicable policy or bond provisions, and any applicable law.

Contrary to public perception, earthquake preparedness is not just an issue in California. This resource from Travelers, the insurance company for MJ Sorority clients, offers tips to help protect your business before, during and after an earthquake.

Get information on preparing for natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, tornados, hurricanes, wildfires, etc. This resource from Travelers, the insurance company for MJ Sorority clients, discusses exposure assessment, protection, planning and preparation, response, and recovery.

A resource developed for universities from Travelers, the insurance company for MJ Sorority clients, much of which is applicable to sororities as well.

A guide developed by Travelers, the insurance company for MJ Sorority clients, to help you plan for the unexpected and explain why it is critical to do so.